What am I supposed to be doing?

Lamp in my bedroom, edited with iPhone apps Photoforge2 and Instagram.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about my life, and what I want it to be like. I doubt I'm the only one doing this, but I assume not everyone knows how to talk about it.

At this point in my life, I have a couple of options: continue school as a Biochemistry major, get out, go to graduate school, and become a pharmacist. This is option No. 1. It's nice, it's secure, it's hard, and it's something I'm not really too passionate about. Now let's introduce option No. 2: stick with school, but chase the dream--photography, writing, being creative all day long and constantly finding new ways to look at life. Wow, that one sounds pretty good, right? But wait, there's a down side to No. 2...let's talk about money, bills, job security. Nahhh, let's not discuss any of that because No. 2 has nothing good to say about it. Salary relies on private clients; I'd have to build a company from the ground, up; and there's no guarantee that any of it would work. So, now you see my problem.

The deciding factor in this whole process is something really simple: smiling. I'm going to do what makes me smile. Genuinely, I smile when I am happy (some of you who know me also know that I smile when I say something crass or act like a bastard, but still, even in those circumstances, I'm happy). I figure, if I take things day-by-day, it could [just maybe] work out to my benefit. Instead of choosing an entire path to walk down, I'm choosing stepping stones, one day at a time.

Don't get this confused with taking the easy way out every time I have to make a decision--it means choosing the thing that will satisfy not just one day, but the later days as well. When weighing the decision to see which one will make me happier, it's not just about today's happiness, but the happiness that will be affected by it further down the road. The decisions made today will determine the choices made available tomorrow. Think on that.

So there's this thing called Instagram...

Here’s the thing about Instagram. It’s addictive—sure, we get that. But there’s more to it. Instagram is a direct product of our culture’s fascination with knowing everything. Turn on your TV. If it’s primetime, you’ll most likely be privy to any number of “reality” TV shows (whether they accurately portray reality is a post for another day…). Now think about it: we like these shows because they allow us to imagine what “living their life” would be like. Obviously this isn’t the first time anyone’s ever pondered that “grass-is-always-greener” adage (we have an adage, after all); I’m sure even before Mark Twain wrote The Prince and the Pauper you had some poor guys wanting to live the life of the king. The part that makes our generation special is this: we have the ability to witness almost every aspect of the life we desire.

Do you wish your kid was cute and bitchy? Go watch “Toddlers and Tiaras.”

Sad you can’t conceive? Hit up some “[Obscene number] Kids and Counting.”

Whatever life you wish you lived, you can at least tune in to it on Friday nights.

OK, so we understand why reality TV is so popular, but how does that relate to Instagram? Well I’m glad you asked. Instagram is just a still-frame version of reality TV, available on your phone. This “phone” part is vital to the equation—if you put anything on a cell phone, it will become popular.

“Hey, let’s bring back the telegram from the 1850’s, only we’ll put it in phones and call it ‘text messaging.’”

“Honey, do you wanna help Little Timmy read his bedtime story? No? Well just put his iPhone on ‘autoreader’ and I’m sure Siri will take care of him.”

So why should photography be any different? Sure, you could spend several hundred dollars on a camera, take some classes down at the community college (or just Youtube your lessons…), and contact some near-extinct artisans on how to develop artistic prints, OR you could just download Instagram for free. For any of you who do not know, Instagram is a free app that accesses your phone’s camera and applies filters with vintage effects to your photos. Then, the photos are shared to anyone who stumbles upon them while on the Instagram app. The design of the app is, hands down, superb. The quality of the pictures and the ease of use contribute greatly to its massive following (over 30 million users in just 18 months). But the real obsession with Instagram goes back to our fascination with the lives of others.

Instagram allows you to see life through the [filtered] lives of others. Movie stars, artists, athletes, neighbors—they’re all on Instagram, and they all take pictures. Find them, like them, comment on them, stalk them, or admire from afar.

You can search “Starbucks” and see what other people do while they drink their overpriced coffee.

Hashtag “movienight” to see what brand of popcorn your friends prefer.

And why is it so important that Instagram is a phone application instead of a “grounded” website? Simple: it’s “on-the-go.” Take it with you; take pics during the big meeting in the conference room; view pics in the big meeting in the conference room. Boiling it down to its most basic purpose, Instagram is your life, segmented into 1936x1936 pixels, for all the world to see and envy. I should know—while writing this post I’ve published 3 photos